1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a camera and, more particularly, to a combination of two covers with a hood for a lens of a camera.
2. Related Prior Art
A camera includes a lens. The lens must be clean and integral so that clear photographs can be taken with the camera.
To retain the cleanness and integrity of the lens, a cover can be used to cover the lens of the camera equipped. Such a cover can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 7,775,671 for example. However, a photograph cannot be taken without removing the cover from the lens of the camera. This often causes a photographer to miss a good shot when he or she suddenly gets a fleeting glimpse of an object.
To overcome the foregoing problem, there have been devised automatic covering units for covering lenses. Such an automatic covering unit can be found in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2009-258600. The cover consists of two or three covers. Each of the covers is connected to a specific bent leaf spring in contact with a telescopic lens. When the telescopic lens is extended, the covers are pushed open by the telescopic lens through the bent leaf springs. When the telescopic lens is shrunk, the covers are closed by the telescopic lens through the bent leaf springs.
The camera is sometimes equipped with a hood for shielding the lens. Thus, the lens will not be wetted and contaminated by rain or splash of water. Moreover, clear photographs can be taken because undesirable light is blocked from the lens.
Conventionally, the cover and the hood are two different elements. The cover cannot be used to protect the lens if the hood is attached to the camera. It is troublesome to replace the hood with the lens camera, and vice versa.
The present invention is therefore intended to obviate or at least alleviate the problems encountered in prior art.